Monday, 28 October 2019

Anti-inflammatory agents, such as aspirin/paracetamol, statins, and antibiotics, can safely and effectively curb the symptoms of major depression, finds a pooled analysis of the available evidence, published online in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.

A failing pipe can be tough to spot. It may cause a puddle, produce another sign of damage, or simply burst before detection. A flooded kitchen or laundry room is messy and inconvenient, but the stakes are much, much higher in nuclear power plants—which on average contain many miles of pipeline.

Bioimpedance spectroscopy (BIS) is a noninvasive technology that measures the amount of fluid in a limb. It works by sending low level electrical current through the arm or leg and measuring the resistance to current (impedance).

The final stage of DNA replication—"termination"—occurs when two DNA copy machines advance upon each other and unwind the final stretch of DNA. This process occurs about 60,000 times per human cell cycle and is crucial to prevent mutations.

Our expert: Justin Gottschlich leads the Machine Programming Research (MPR) team in the Systems and Software Research Lab. Justin's newly-formed research group focuses on the pioneering promise of machine programming, which is a fusion of machine learning, formal methods, programming languages, compilers and computer systems.

If the measure of a currency's importance is how much it's used to actually buy and sell things, digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have barely gotten off the ground. And Facebook's proposed entry, Libra, has run into a wall of skepticism.

Scientists count 1.4 million different names for plants on Earth. But botanists estimate there are just 300,000 existing species. That means there's a veritable Tower of Babel of plant names are kicking around.

Using a supercomputing system, MIT researchers have developed a model that captures what web traffic looks like around the world on a given day, which can be used as a measurement tool for internet research and many other applications.

To improve the safety of autonomous systems, MIT engineers have developed a system that can sense tiny changes in shadows on the ground to determine if there's a moving object coming around the corner.

Autonomous drones are cautious when navigating the unknown. They creep forward, frequently mapping unfamiliar areas before proceeding lest they crash into undetected objects. But this slowdown isn't ideal for drones carrying out time-sensitive tasks, such as flying search-and-rescue missions through dense forests.

Working with model mice, postmortem human brains, and people with schizophrenia, researchers at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan have discovered that a subtype of schizophrenia is related to abnormally high levels hydrogen sulfide in the brain. Experiments showed that this abnormality likely results from a DNA-modifying reaction during development that lasts throughout life. In addition to providing a new direction for research into drug therapies, higher-than-normal levels of the hydrogen sulfide-producing enzyme can act as biomarker for this type of schizophrenia.

Working with model mice, postmortem human brains, and people with schizophrenia, researchers at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan have discovered that a subtype of schizophrenia is related to abnormally high levels hydrogen sulfide in the brain. Experiments showed that this abnormality likely results from a DNA-modifying reaction during development that lasts throughout life. In addition to providing a new direction for research into drug therapies, higher-than-normal levels of the hydrogen sulfide-producing enzyme can act as biomarker for this type of schizophrenia.

The hormone erythropoietin (Epo) is a well-known doping substance that has a long history of abuse in endurance sports such as cycling. In addition to promoting red blood cell production (erythropoiesis), which improves the oxygen supply, Epo also protects nerve cells from cell death. In order to use this effect to cure neurodegenerative diseases, however, the negative effects caused by Epo through the stimulated formation of red blood cells need to be prevented. Researchers at the University of Göttingen have now discovered an alternative Epo receptor that could potentially also trigger protective effects in humans without the side effects on erythropoiesis. The results were published in the journal Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

California's governor declared a statewide emergency on Sunday as a huge blaze, fanned by strong winds, forced mass evacuations and power blackouts as it bore down on towns in the famed Sonoma wine region.

Movie nights once required driving to the local video store to rent, rewind and return the latest blockbuster. Now on-demand video content providers offer countless binge-worthy options at the touch of a finger.

Nonnutritive or artificial sweeteners are a growing part of U.S. diets, now consumed by at least one in four children. A new American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) policy statement offers a summary of the existing data around nonnutritive sweeteners and recommends future research into how they affect children's weight, taste preferences, the risk for diabetes, and long-term safety.

Recognizing that severe obesity is a serious and worsening public health crisis in children and adolescents, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is calling for greater access to metabolic and bariatric surgery, one of the few strategies that has been shown to be effective in treating the most severe forms of the chronic disease.

A new study published today in the journal Clinical Oral Investigations, has found that sugar-sweetened acidic drinks, such as soft drinks, is the common factor between obesity and tooth wear among adults.

Community-based health programs in parts of rural Nigeria, Ethiopia and India were successful in improving health care for mothers and newborns, but inequities still exist, according to a new study in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).